The Upshot took a look at celebrity deaths, using data from The New York Times obituary archives. We defined “celebrity” as anyone whose obit ran at least 2,000 words, roughly two-thirds of a printed page when photos are added. (For comparison, Ms. Bacall’s was about 3,000 words. The longest, for Pope John Paul II, ran 13,363 words.)

Since 1990, 449 such people have died. In 75 cases, two of them died within three days of each other. But in only seven cases did three of them die within a five-day period. According to my colleague Boris Chen, a statistician, this is about what you’d expect by random chance.

That said, expect the rate to get much, much higher.

And it’s just a case of numbers: there are (and were) a lot of Boomers.

Sure, Glenn Frey is a little younger than the others, but is still part of the early Boom (and Lemmy is in the tail end of the prior “generation”… these things smear).

Before the musical break, I want to point out that the peak of the Baby Boom did not occur until the late 1950s. We’re just seeing the early years.

NOW WE BREAKFORSOMEMUSIC

Just because.

I love that song. And video. It’s hard for me to be menaced by Trent Reznor. Just want to pat him on the head and tell him it will be all right.

Yes, I could make this all David Bowie videos, but let’s give the other guys a chance.

THESUNWILLSHINE, ANDPEOPLEWILLDIE

The pattern of U.S. births is not that different from other countries’ in post-WWII. There are country-specific stuff, especially for the losers in the war, and then the aspect of the UK being under austerity for a good decade due to socialists running the country, but let’s just go with the U.S. (though our recent examples also come from the UK).

The reason you’re going to see a lot of these deaths, increasingly, over the next two decades are:

- the pig in a python of the Baby Boom
- the oldest Boomers are entering their 70s this year…and mortality really kicks up as one gets to be over 70.

Note that is deaths per 100,000. Notice how it really starts to climb for age 70-74 compared to earlier – it’s at about 2,000 per 100,000 — or 2% per year.

That sounds low, but when you’ve got a growing population in that age range, 2% is quite a lot. I could try to count how many well-known people were born in 1946 (yes, many have already pointed out Trump… and there’s some notables born in 1947) — yes, many are rich yadda yadda, but just assume 2% on that list will die sometime this year. That’s a lot of people. And there will be only more and more people.

Just wait til those born in the mid-1950s (Baby Boom peak) hit age 80 in the mid-2030s. They will really be dropping like flies.

And most are going to die from heart disease, stroke, or cancer:

So…. enjoy. I used to play dead pools, but that’s not so much fun anymore, especially as my own mother is a Boomer (my dad died of a heart attack when he was 38).